Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee began their hearings on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report Monday with a blast from the past: John Dean, the…
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee began their hearings on special counsel Robert Mueller’s report Monday with a blast from the past: John Dean, the former White House counsel under President Nixon who testified before Congress in the Watergate era.
Democrats sought to use the testimony of Dean, a pivotal witness during the Watergate hearings and known critic of President Trump, to elucidate key details from the report, while Republicans tried to undercut his credibility.
In a steamy hearing room, Democrats read directly from Mueller’s 448-page document and used props to highlight the episodes Mueller examined as potentially obstructive conduct.
Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) cited page numbers as they regurgitated details about Trump’s conduct toward former White House counsel McGahn and the president’s efforts to have Mueller removed, which the special counsel examined in his inquiry into potential obstruction of justice.
In many cases, Dean responded by drawing parallels between Trump’s conduct and the coverup scandal that engulfed the Nixon administration.
“When I read the Mueller report in detail, my first reaction was that McGahn took the high road, acting more like Elliot Richardson and Bill Ruckelshaus, and I thought that was admirable,” Dean said, comparing McGahn to the Nixon-era attorney general and deputy attorney general who were fired in the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre.
